How can we get rid of Batum?

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JFizzleRaider said:
You're right. But there have been rumors that Olshey has floated batums name in trade talks, which would be the smart thing to do. Especially when your star fa is making hints about possibly wanting said player off the team
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Where have you seen anything referring to this? I haven't seen anything of the sort.
 
BonesJones said:
haha its proof of how much his mind is stuck in France. He's in the NBA but talking about how at the end he would love to leave to go back to France. I don't understand...
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Same thing was said by Rudy and Pau Gasol a few years ago. They throw a bone to their local media over there.
 
DannL44 said:
While I do agree that Batum's contract is overpriced, I can't help but wonder if he had an off year like most players do. I have read through all 11 pages of this thread and agree with both sides. Yes, Batum has a great game as a field general, setting up plays and assisting on many baskets. Batum also slumped hard-core, thus making us all wonder if he should be traded, dropped like a hot potato, rested up in Cuba, or falsely accused of being a part of Isis. IMO, I think we should give him this year to prove himself as a part of staying on this team (which I know people are going to respond to this saying that he has had almost a decade to prove himself, etc). My thought is that if he RESTS UP this summer, he can come back strong this next year and we can possibly contend for a title. Think about it... A rested Dame, Batum, LA, and Rolo, plus a healthy Wes (assuming that he comes back strong, which I have reason to believe with seeing how Paul George is recovering and playing well off the bench), we would have a chance at Title Contention. I believe we can upgrade at C, which I like the concept of Drummond, but I am unsure how team-chemistry will be affected. What ever decision is made, it has to be made with the utmost consideration of all angles. This offseason needs more thought by Management than what you put into the draft. My thought is rest everyone up, and make them feel valued. People play better when this happens. I'm open to trades, but am wary of how things will turn out.
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First off "welcome". Second, the underlined, bold sentence is the problem with your line of though. IF he rested up and fully healed, he might start performing like the very well paid player he is. But hes not gonna rest, he already said he is playing for France this summer.

Don't get me wrong, I thinks its admirable and I support his desire to play for his home country. However when it negatively effects his play for the Blazers and subsequently impacts the team, that's a problem.
 
I'm sure Batum called up the local media and made a statement that, years from now, before he hangs up his sneakers, he would like to play a year or two for the home team. There's no way that statement was in response to a direct question. Traitorous bastard.
 
BonesJones said:
haha its proof of how much his mind is stuck in France. He's in the NBA but talking about how at the end he would love to leave to go back to France. I don't understand...
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Threads like these are probably why. Sabonis went home, Rudy went home. He owns a majority of a team there. He's a championship winner there. His mother and family are there...it's not that hard to understand. Better than Vlade Divac spending his golden years in Sacramento in my opinion
 
adrenalize74 said:
First off "welcome". Second, the underlined, bold sentence is the problem with your line of though. IF he rested up and fully healed, he might start performing like the very well paid player he is. But hes not gonna rest, he already said he is playing for France this summer.

Don't get me wrong, I thinks its admirable and I support his desire to play for his home country. However when it negatively effects his play for the Blazers and subsequently impacts the team, that's a problem.
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I agree with this, and yes, Batum isn't resting up because he is playing for France later this summer. Ultimately it is his choice, and we have to be willing to accept that. My question to all of us fans is that if we keep everyone and they stay healthy, do you think we can contend for a title? If not, who do we make a trade for or pursue in FA to make our team able to contend for a title? Hibbert or Monroe would upgrade our C position, but then we have to deal with attitude problems and alcohol. Do we find a SF in the draft that can immediately replace Batum and his court-general skills? I believe they can be great, but I doubt it would be enough to help us contend. Could we trade Batum, or find a better SF through FA? Possible, but not likely. Might we have to wait till next offseason to make any major change? Possible. I believe we can contend with our current team, but some changes do need to be made. When, and how is the delicate question, for we could be in the Lakers position if we don't do this right. Funny how the Lakers are no longer contenders... I like it.
 
Yeah, Batum in no way said that he's going to rest this summer before playing for France before training camp. (If I cared enough I'd find the link and hyperlink that first sentence I wrote so that it'd drip with sarcasm.)
And didn't Kobe or Pierce, or someone of that ilk, say that they thought they'd go play in Europe for a couple years after retiring from the NBA? It was a few years ago, but I'm quite certain one of them said the same thing Nic just said. Fucking assholes. (Although, in the case of Kobe/Pierce, they ARE assholes, but not because they said they'd play in Europe after their NBA careers were over.)

For the record, I'm NOT in favor of NBA players playing nationally/in the Olympics. But that's their right and I'm not going to hold it against them. And all you two-faced dumbshits that don't like Nic playing for France - you better hate Lillard for playing with, and trying to make, Team USA.
 
I totally understand his disposition.. I just feel like part of him would rather be the star in playing overseas in France then what he is here.
 
BonesJones said:
I totally understand his disposition.. I just feel like part of him would rather be the star in playing overseas in France then what he is here.
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Well if he doesn't sign another NBA contract next summer then we'll know you're right. And if he DOES sign another NBA contract we'll know you're wrong. I'm willing to stake my house on him signing another NBA contract (barring a career-ending injury occurring before he has the opportunity).
 
blue9 said:
For the record, I'm NOT in favor of NBA players playing nationally/in the Olympics. But that's their right and I'm not going to hold it against them. And all you two-faced dumbshits that don't like Nic playing for France - you better hate Lillard for playing with, and trying to make, Team USA.
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Totally agree with you, but there is a distinction. Nic plays like major minutes and take a large role on the French Team. Dame would play like 10 mpg max if he were on Team USA.
 
yuyuza1 said:
Totally agree with you, but there is a distinction. Nic plays like major minutes and take a large role on the French Team. Dame would play like 10 mpg max if he were on Team USA.
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I often wonder about this. You hear about these guys playing in the summer at UCLA or in Houston or Atlanta, or even at the Blazer practice facility. Anywhere they can find good competition. They are playing pick up games for a couple of hours every day.
We don't seem to care about this. But if a guy is playing internationally we think he is exerting more energy? I am not sure I see the difference. They don't play every day internationally and the practices are not as hard as these local pick up games.

Mentally I think Nic might get drained, but he does get that rest before fall camp starts. My issue is I think it hurts him from working on different aspects of his game, as well as working on his body. But I don't think the minutes for the French team is an issue.
 
I have no problem with batum playing for the French team. But he needs to take a break this year and fix whatever is wrong with his game. He had a bad year this year, it's a contract year next year, and the team really needs him.

He could play in the Olympics next year while sitting this one out
 
yuyuza1 said:
Totally agree with you, but there is a distinction. Nic plays like major minutes and take a large role on the French Team. Dame would play like 10 mpg max if he were on Team USA.
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Sure, but if Dame could you know he wouldn't turn down playing 30-40mpg for Team USA. Lucky for us it doesn't matter what Dame wants.
 
blue9 said:
Sure, but if Dame could you know he wouldn't turn down playing 30-40mpg for Team USA. Lucky for us it doesn't matter what Dame wants.
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yeah but that isn't every summer.
 
blue9 said:
Well if he doesn't sign another NBA contract next summer then we'll know you're right. And if he DOES sign another NBA contract we'll know you're wrong. I'm willing to stake my house on him signing another NBA contract (barring a career-ending injury occurring before he has the opportunity).
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notice I said part of him. Most guys this is their dream. For him it seems like, "well this is where I get paid the most, and where the best play".
 
When Dirk was Nico's age you couldn't pull him out of playing for Germany or the Gasol's from playing for Spain. If folks don't like world competition, that's their problem. Tennis players play Davis Cup and they have one of the most grueling schedules in sports..often 3 hour plus matches without a break. Nico watched his father die on the court playing French basketball and has every right to play all he wants, just like Curry or Iggy or any other NBA player. The NBA is not the end of the world for an athlete. Deal with it! I think Nico's divorce during the season had more impact on his mental game along with his injuries so I guess NBA players should just not get married eh? Nico is a guy I really want on our roster next year. Not many will agree with me but that's not unusual.
 
Dude they divorced In October 2013. It wasn't during this last season
 
riverman said:
When Dirk was Nico's age you couldn't pull him out of playing for Germany or the Gasol's from playing for Spain. If folks don't like world competition, that's their problem. Tennis players play Davis Cup and they have one of the most grueling schedules in sports..often 3 hour plus matches without a break. Nico watched his father die on the court playing French basketball and has every right to play all he wants, just like Curry or Iggy or any other NBA player. The NBA is not the end of the world for an athlete. Deal with it! I think Nico's divorce during the season had more impact on his mental game along with his injuries so I guess NBA players should just not get married eh? Nico is a guy I really want on our roster next year. Not many will agree with me but that's not unusual.
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Agreed on everything except that.
 
riverman said:
When Dirk was Nico's age you couldn't pull him out of playing for Germany or the Gasol's from playing for Spain. If folks don't like world competition, that's their problem. Tennis players play Davis Cup and they have one of the most grueling schedules in sports..often 3 hour plus matches without a break. Nico watched his father die on the court playing French basketball and has every right to play all he wants, just like Curry or Iggy or any other NBA player. The NBA is not the end of the world for an athlete. Deal with it! I think Nico's divorce during the season had more impact on his mental game along with his injuries so I guess NBA players should just not get married eh? Nico is a guy I really want on our roster next year. Not many will agree with me but that's not unusual.
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I agree with everything you say but the problem is doing this hurts his production here. And the fact that he's already worn down makes it worse. I don't blame him and I understand why he plays, it just doesnt benefit us.
 
riverman said:
They were settling his divorce and in court Dec 2014 dude..that's last season
http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2014/12/judge_gives_trail_blazer_nic_b.html
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His divorce was finalized October 2013. He was behind on his payments to his ex, whichis why he was found in contempt of court.

The divorce was I'm the rearview mirror at that point, dude just wasn't showing up to court when he was called out for missing payments. hardly mentally shattering stuff.
 
JFizzleRaider said:
His divorce was finalized October 2013. He was behind on his payments to his ex, whichis why he was found in contempt of court.

The divorce was I'm the rearview mirror at that point, dude just wasn't showing up to court when he was called out for missing payments. hardly mentally shattering stuff.
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He was in court concerning that divorce last season..lost a ton of money. I stand by my point. His divorce was the cause and it took a long time to settle it.
 
JFizzleRaider said:
His divorce was finalized October 2013. He was behind on his payments to his ex, whichis why he was found in contempt of court.

The divorce was I'm the rearview mirror at that point, dude just wasn't showing up to court when he was called out for missing payments. hardly mentally shattering stuff.
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Batum should've listened to Kanye... "If you ain't no punk holla we want prenup, WE WANT PRENUP! YEAH! It's something that you need to have 'Cause when she leave yo ass she gon' leave with half"
 
He actually got off pretty well. Five million. It could have been a lot worse.

And I don't buy any of the divorce bs. He went through his actual divorce in 2013 and had his best year of his career
 
JFizzleRaider said:
He actually got off pretty well. Five million. It could have been a lot worse.

And I don't buy any of the divorce bs. He went through his actual divorce in 2013 and had his best year of his career
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I'm guessing you've never been through an ugly divorce...mine took 3 years to finalize. I'm not selling divorce bs but he's clearly been drained by it whether you consider it a factor or not. I do
 
Riverman and others who have posted the divorce theory have plausible reasoning. To solve this, I forced myself to read the Oregonian article cited above.

The article says that in the 2013-14 season, Batum thought his agent was taking care of it and would pay the bitch. In the 2014-15 season, Batum had to fight in court, because although he had overpaid, the incompetent female judge (who probably loves her job of destroying thousands of men) couldn't do arithmetic and thought he had underpaid.

2013-14 season:
When Batum and Pimentel divorced in October 2013, he agreed to pay her $5 million over three years, starting with $1 million...Batum failed to pay the full $1 million on time and fell behind in monthly payments. Pimentel hired lawyers and notified Batum she was taking him to court. A hearing was set for Aug. 14 [2014].

Batum turned the matter over to his agent, Bouna Ndiaye, assuming Ndiaye would resolve the matter....Batum left Portland in May [2014] to play basketball in France, apparently unaware the loan wasn't funded, according to court records.

Pimentel claimed Batum owed her more than $216,000, but she was wrong. Batum had fallen behind but had caught up. At the time of the hearing [August 14, 2014], he was nearly $90,000 ahead. [Bitch judge] Miller, unaware of the arithmetic error, found Batum in contempt and fined him $500 for each day he was in breach of the contract.
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2014-15 season:
The December 10, 2014 article cited in the post above said that that day's news was:

Miller said she would "wipe the slate clean" and let the attorneys make their case anew in April [2015].
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So it's plausible that Batum's play was affected in 2014-15, when the matter weighed on his mind, instead of 2013-14, the divorce season, when he thought his agent would take care of payments. Edit: But I'd still like to trade him, for reasons unrelated to this (a replaceable, ordinary talent who is overpaid).
 
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